A blog cover my experience in international business(Sourcing, Manufacture, Export etc);would be glad if these knowledge could help you.

2015年5月14日星期四

5ways to help you staying away from these pitfalls when you place a rush order in China

We all experienced some customer who make decision in the last min and want to get the product in next few days!

If you have stock, congratulation, then you could get higher profit than normal order;

If not, then you have to turn your eyes to your supplier, like China; but there are some unexpected problem happens like quality or time delay, then you might lost money; even worse, the desperate customer will come back.

The below questions and coming answers will help you manage and control your risk when place rush order to China:

1.Ask factory the current production status? Extreme busy, little busy, not busy; if the production line is super busy, then you should really think about the risk of your order;

2.Ask about the scale of the ongoing production, like how many percentage or large / medium /small order;
If large order occupy 80% and just start, that means they will not stop and make your rush order as priority; in contrast, if ongoing small order is about 80%, that means your order could rank better than some that is not urgent;

3.Never Never ignore emphasizing the detail; you need to go over the detail from one single screw treatment to final product, not once, but continuous during the production;
As sometimes sales just focus on delivery time but less attention on quality, but you know the tiny mistake sometimes will cost more if customer would not like to accept.

4.Ask for production schedule and follow up. When start cutting, painting, assembling, Aging, QC, Packing, Shipping.. every process delay will increase the risk possibility;
You need to have one production schedule on hand and write down on contract, also follow through conversation, picture, video, every method could prove it is on time.

5.Allow some extra time for yourself, if customer ask for delivery as 25th, remember do not pass the extract date to factory, some extra time benefit you to face some unexpected problems like custom hold and release.

6.Cooperate with your current suppliers instead of new one; the new supplier might commit to finish earlier, but as lack of cooperation record, that might increase your risk on order and quality;
that also means you should have plan B normally, and place testing orders(not urgent) to them; so that you have backup solution if your priority factory cold not make it.